Dakar Inter-parliamentary Conference on FGM: “Towards the ban of the practice at the United Nations”

The Inter-parliamentary Conference “To harmonize the legal instruments prohibiting FGM: consolidating the achievements, sharing the successes, pursuing the advancements! Towards the ban of the practice at the United Nations”, held on 3-4 May 2010 in the premises of the Conseil Economique et Social, in Dakar, was organized by the Ministry of Family Affairs of Senegal in partnership with the international NGO No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) and the Senegalese organisation La Palabre, and with the financial support of Italian Cooperation, UNOPS, UNFPA and the Municipality of Rome.

The Conference, which saw among others the participation of Emma Bonino, Vice-President of the Italian Senate and founder of NPWJ, gathered parliamentarians, civil society activists and government representatives from Senegal and the other 27 African countries affected by the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), as well as representatives of the African Union, the Pan-African Parliament, the ECOWAS Parliamentary Assembly, the East African Legislative Assembly, and the relevant United Nations specialized agencies.

The objective of the Conference was twofold: 1) to share and discuss actions and strategies to eliminate FGM through its legal ban undertaken since the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol); 2) to gather legislators from national and regional institutions (National Assemblies, CEDEAO Parliamentary Assembly, Pan-African Parliament, African Union, United Nations) and governments’ members with the aim to consolidate their common path in the framework of an international campaign aiming at the adoption during the 65th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations of a resolution explicitly banning FGM as a violation of human rights of women and girls.

The Dakar Inter-parliamentary Conference concluded with the adoption of a Final Declaration stressing the need to work for a universal ban on FGM which, as a wide-scale and blatant violation of the human rights of women and girls, represents a challenge for the international community.

Among its main recommendations, the Final Declaration calls for the adoption of a resolution explicitly banning FGM worldwide as a violation of human rights of women and girls during the 65th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations and calls on all African States as well as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the East African Community (EAC) and the African Union to promote the adoption of this resolution within 2010.

In particular, the Conference provided the opportunity to establish coordination among parliamentarians and activists on the content priorities for the Resolution and on the strategies to ensure that Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Missions to the UN in New York take on the priorities that emerge from the Seminar.